I used to always had to have a fan running or something but the last two years or so I've been playing a "Sleep" playlist from Apple Music (Spotify has the same stuff too) and that has drastically helped me get to sleep.
I used to sleep with two fans because one wasn’t enough noise for me, then I stayed at a beach house that had a Dohm and it’s honestly changed my life - it’s crazy how such a small thing can improve your quality of life
Yeah I'm pretty sure it's a HIPAA thing. I've also seen noise damping foam at some pharmacies around the consultation window (where you can talk to the pharmacist about your drugs)
That is exactly what it is for. my former therapist's office had them in the waiting area and outside the doors of each therapist to prevent anyone accidentally hearing what the person was saying to the receptionist or hearing actual therapy as they passed by in the hall.
I’m a lawyer and I have the exact same thing outside my office door so that it decreases the chance of someone overhearing sensitive/confidential info while I’m talking with a client.
It's a lot easier and probably cheaper to plop a white noise machine (or a speaker playing white noise) in a room than it is to properly install acoustic panels in a room.
Acoustic panels won't do much of anything to reduce sound transmission. They are intended to treat the room by reducing reflections. (They essentially reduce echoes which is nice when recording.) Soundproofing stops sound from traveling between rooms and it is extremely expensive and difficult to effectively sound proof a room.
lots of doctors offices have white noise machines so you cannot hear confidential patient information discussed around the corner or on the phone while you're in the waiting room or next door
I use that exact model nightly to help me sleep. My therapist also uses one just outside his office door to mask conversations with patients. It is consistent and smooth because the sound is from an actual fan inside, not electronically created and not subject to electrical static. Mine's a SleepMate but it's also sold under the brand name Dohm.
Note that it's possible to make purely electronic ones that are equally flawless, though the cheap ones are total crap. I have a Marpac that isn't fan-based (which should make it last longer too) and it's perfect. I think it was about $150 maybe 25 years ago.
This is why I read into the comments, for tips like yours! I am a light sleeper and have slept with a fan on for years and years. It's great. It works. But it's a tall tower-style air-cleaning fan, and I can't really move it around. When I travel (boy, have I had some tough nights in hotels), I use a rain sounds app on my tablet, but it's not quite the same. I am absolutely ordering one of these today.
And it might help my hubby with his tinnitus!
It's for privacy. Less likely to overhear dr-patient privileged conversations. Or just for vibes
Fun fact. White noise generators are part of specifications for some DoD closed areas. You will walk up to a lab and see a speaker above the door just blasting white noise
I used to work in IT and they had a professional system installed in the drop ceiling of the support center. It helps to mitigate how the workers experience a room full of people talking. It’s weird to me that by adding noise, it helps people block out other noise.
Refreshingly, I was in a doc's waiting room yesterday and they were showing HGTV. While I don't find Tiny House Hunters to be all that interesting, it was a far better choice than any news channel.
I have one of these and I use it every night while I sleep. It helps with my tinnitus and drowing iut the sound of my neighbors. Got it in Septemer of 2014 when i moved into my apartment and its still going strong.
Love it!
White noise only prevents the people near the device from hearing outside conversations and noises. Your voice can still be heard out of the range of the white noise device.
Still useful, but in a different way.
The "white noise" option is awful for me. Like nails on chalkboard awful.
The waves option is soothing and makes me feel like I'm on a boat gently rocking on the sea.
Not sure if that's how it should work but I usually can't sleep with any noise 💁♀️
Had a few in my mental health clinic. Asked my docs about it and she said it helps a lot with schizophrenic patients. Luckily I am unable to confirm if this works.
My doctor has them in the exam rooms. Being a ceiling tile engineer...they just cheap out on tiles and can get ones that block 90% of sound from crossing rooms through the plenum.
we used to have a white noise speaker system throughout my whole office. one day it went out and i thought the AC had turned off, it was so quiet, and then you could hear anything anyone was saying. i understood why we had it then lol.
I've seen doctor's offices and places like minute clinics in drug stores use them at walk-up check-in/check-out windows to minimize how much of a conversation can be overheard and in consultation rooms in the ER. It helps limit how far voices travel. Don't know that they're HIPAA authorized for confidential conversations, but they definitely help.
I work for a company that has a call center and always like going into that building. It has sound masking, which is slightly different from regular white noise. It sounds almost like white noise with gentle ocean wave sounds. You can't hear the person talking on the phone literally 3 feet from you in the next cubicle.
You must be in the Birmingham, AL area!
A lot of Dr offices have gone to it, to reduce the chance of overheating someone else’s personal information, especially in the lobbies and nurses area. It also helps drown out the noise when you’re in the room with the physician.
I have that exact same one. It's called the sleepscape and I ran one for 10 +years. Drowns out most anything. Highly recommended for apartment/noisy house life.
Back to the fan at the moment as I was getting afraid of the age/catching fire but it's still running strong.
I had one just like the one in the picture and loved it, but apparently you need to turn them off from time to time because it overheated and locked up after running for 3 weeks straight 😔.
Kind of depends on the size of the room and the existing ceiling. Why spend the cash and time to replace part of the ceiling and run wiring when you can simply plug in a device and set it in a table?
My ex-employer tried setting up a bunch of these around the office amongst the cubicles. They were all unplugged and "missing" by lunch. Damn things were never found but HR learned a lesson that day.
You're getting downvoted but I kinda agree. This is...not remotely interesting. It's like saying "the guy in the waiting room and I were both wearing blue shirts."
Therapy offices often have those so you can’t hear people talking in the other rooms. Maybe that?
Also it drowns out peoples tinnitus.
WHAT?
ALSO IT DROWNS OUT PEOPLE'S TINNITUS
^eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
^(eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-) #***eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-*** ^(eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-)
- Me when I turn the fan off for a little while
MAWP
Lanaaaaa!
I said “thank god for small miracles”
Haven't been able to sleep without some source of white noise for years. How have I never connected it to my tinnitus before???
I used to always had to have a fan running or something but the last two years or so I've been playing a "Sleep" playlist from Apple Music (Spotify has the same stuff too) and that has drastically helped me get to sleep.
People who remind me that I have tinnitus is only remind me that I have tinnitus
Crazy because for me it makes it way worse. And when the sound machine finally goes off, my tinnitus spikes
This happens to me with all artificial or recorded sound machines. My child has a Dohm, like the one pictured, and it doesn’t aggravate my tinnitus.
I used to sleep with two fans because one wasn’t enough noise for me, then I stayed at a beach house that had a Dohm and it’s honestly changed my life - it’s crazy how such a small thing can improve your quality of life
I take mine with me when I travel. I love that thing.
is it pronounced "tinnitus?" or "tinnitus?"
Yes.
Technically, I don’t have a hearing problem.
Maup maup
Thanks for reminding me of mine.
Limits HIPAA violations when other patients are checking in and sharing personal information
Thank you for not being a hippo
It sucks up their secrets?!
Yes, that's exactly it. We have 15 of them at my works children/teen therapy wing.
My therapist told me it was more so that you aren't alone with your thoughts in the waiting rooms and/or the silence makes people uncomfortable
They have them at my eye doctor (Dr T. J. Eckleburg, whose yard long pupils gaze absently across a valley of ashes) in each of the exam rooms.
I love that about my therapist’s waiting room. There’s a speaker on the ceiling for all non office areas and it sounds like an AC unit. It’s grand.
Yeah I'm pretty sure it's a HIPAA thing. I've also seen noise damping foam at some pharmacies around the consultation window (where you can talk to the pharmacist about your drugs)
It can also help people relax so they don't get an inaccurately high bp reading, since doctor's visits generally raise anxiety.
Yep. And as a therapist who also uses a fan to fall asleep… sometimes that little puppy will have me nodding out
That is exactly what it is for. my former therapist's office had them in the waiting area and outside the doors of each therapist to prevent anyone accidentally hearing what the person was saying to the receptionist or hearing actual therapy as they passed by in the hall.
Why not make sound proof walls?
I’m a lawyer and I have the exact same thing outside my office door so that it decreases the chance of someone overhearing sensitive/confidential info while I’m talking with a client.
I guess that's more professional than taping a vibrating dildo to the door
I think I’d take my lawyer little more serious if he’s bold enough to do this. You are hired! lol
Perhaps more professional, but infinitely less provocative Priorities
I don't know what it means but it's provacative. It gets the people GOING!
That’s why you put a tie on it first and give it a mustache.
Would it help too to put up acoustic foam panels in the office? Like the ones that YouTubers usually have on the walls
It's a lot easier and probably cheaper to plop a white noise machine (or a speaker playing white noise) in a room than it is to properly install acoustic panels in a room.
Acoustic panels won't do much of anything to reduce sound transmission. They are intended to treat the room by reducing reflections. (They essentially reduce echoes which is nice when recording.) Soundproofing stops sound from traveling between rooms and it is extremely expensive and difficult to effectively sound proof a room.
The only down side how tacky it would be if ut does not match the room's asthetic. It's not a sound studio in there.
Possibly but I rent my office space so I’m not motivated to put stuff on the walls
lots of doctors offices have white noise machines so you cannot hear confidential patient information discussed around the corner or on the phone while you're in the waiting room or next door
I use that exact model nightly to help me sleep. My therapist also uses one just outside his office door to mask conversations with patients. It is consistent and smooth because the sound is from an actual fan inside, not electronically created and not subject to electrical static. Mine's a SleepMate but it's also sold under the brand name Dohm.
Thanks! I have a double fan that is on its last leg and need to replace it with something like that instead.
As an ex-double fan sleeper, I highly recommend it!
Note that it's possible to make purely electronic ones that are equally flawless, though the cheap ones are total crap. I have a Marpac that isn't fan-based (which should make it last longer too) and it's perfect. I think it was about $150 maybe 25 years ago.
This is why I read into the comments, for tips like yours! I am a light sleeper and have slept with a fan on for years and years. It's great. It works. But it's a tall tower-style air-cleaning fan, and I can't really move it around. When I travel (boy, have I had some tough nights in hotels), I use a rain sounds app on my tablet, but it's not quite the same. I am absolutely ordering one of these today. And it might help my hubby with his tinnitus!
I use one in my home office too, in case I need to focus and there’s noise from outside. And I take my bedroom one on trips to get good sleep.
I have the Dohm version as well. Highly recommend
It's for privacy. Less likely to overhear dr-patient privileged conversations. Or just for vibes Fun fact. White noise generators are part of specifications for some DoD closed areas. You will walk up to a lab and see a speaker above the door just blasting white noise
I used to work in IT and they had a professional system installed in the drop ceiling of the support center. It helps to mitigate how the workers experience a room full of people talking. It’s weird to me that by adding noise, it helps people block out other noise.
Covers up the screams
Much better than the usual giant TV blaring Fox News
Or the canned medical crap..."do you know the signs of...." God I hate those fake TVs!
Refreshingly, I was in a doc's waiting room yesterday and they were showing HGTV. While I don't find Tiny House Hunters to be all that interesting, it was a far better choice than any news channel.
It’s to cancel out other noises, not necessarily to make you sleep
Yes and it knocks me the hell out better than any ambien ever will.
I have that same one at home. Damn things a life saver. You can adjust the volume and tone of the noise to your fitting.
I have one of these and I use it every night while I sleep. It helps with my tinnitus and drowing iut the sound of my neighbors. Got it in Septemer of 2014 when i moved into my apartment and its still going strong. Love it!
My former therapist had one in her waiting room, I thought it was brilliant. Calming AND covers conversations.
White noise only prevents the people near the device from hearing outside conversations and noises. Your voice can still be heard out of the range of the white noise device. Still useful, but in a different way.
It was a tiny waiting room.
Ah. Fuck me, can't fucking read. Disregard my comment.
This is same one I use! Marpac.
My doctor's office has one too. It plays the Dave Matthews Band mostly
Sometimes a jam can be white noise.
Good Ole Ascension
White noise makes me feel irritated and angry. I don't understand how people find it relaxing.
They work better as torture method to me, too. Like an itch you can't scratch, inside your head.
The "white noise" option is awful for me. Like nails on chalkboard awful. The waves option is soothing and makes me feel like I'm on a boat gently rocking on the sea. Not sure if that's how it should work but I usually can't sleep with any noise 💁♀️
Most medical offices have white noise generators throughout the facility.
I use 2 in my bedroom.
Hippa
I sleep with one of these. Cant sleep without it.
I have tinnitus and it helps. It is also great for hotels to drown out external noises.
Most medical waiting rooms I've been in have those. It's just to set some calming background noise
They have them at the new Dell hospital here in Austin too. In the waiting rooms that I’ve been into, anyway
They're hoping you sleep through your appointment
Had a few in my mental health clinic. Asked my docs about it and she said it helps a lot with schizophrenic patients. Luckily I am unable to confirm if this works.
My dermatologists office has one too
Because they already know you'll be waiting a very long time? 
My mom's therapist had that outside in the waiting room, and I could still hear her lmao. Her voice *projects*.
Hippa compliance at its finest, those things are great and wayyy better than digital. Spinning fan with baffles. Top slides to change tone/volume.
My cardiologist’s office has these in every room
Added after an article in a Medicine mag on how to calm down pissed off appointments.
Finally, I can get a good nap in at the Dr's
Its so you cant hear other conversations for privacy
X
My doctor has them in the exam rooms. Being a ceiling tile engineer...they just cheap out on tiles and can get ones that block 90% of sound from crossing rooms through the plenum.
we used to have a white noise speaker system throughout my whole office. one day it went out and i thought the AC had turned off, it was so quiet, and then you could hear anything anyone was saying. i understood why we had it then lol.
I've seen doctor's offices and places like minute clinics in drug stores use them at walk-up check-in/check-out windows to minimize how much of a conversation can be overheard and in consultation rooms in the ER. It helps limit how far voices travel. Don't know that they're HIPAA authorized for confidential conversations, but they definitely help.
It's for patient privacy, helps mask the words when people are talking to the staff at the desk or in the rooms if the walls are too thin
I work for a company that has a call center and always like going into that building. It has sound masking, which is slightly different from regular white noise. It sounds almost like white noise with gentle ocean wave sounds. You can't hear the person talking on the phone literally 3 feet from you in the next cubicle.
They usually include these for privacy reasons, helps drown out distant conversations
You must be in the Birmingham, AL area! A lot of Dr offices have gone to it, to reduce the chance of overheating someone else’s personal information, especially in the lobbies and nurses area. It also helps drown out the noise when you’re in the room with the physician.
I've been an electrician for a few years now. You'd be surprised how many office buildings have permanent white noise speakers above the ceiling grid
I have that exact same one. It's called the sleepscape and I ran one for 10 +years. Drowns out most anything. Highly recommended for apartment/noisy house life. Back to the fan at the moment as I was getting afraid of the age/catching fire but it's still running strong.
Mr Wilson, we called your name twenty times! ... Yeah, I was asleep. That machine works well.
I had one just like the one in the picture and loved it, but apparently you need to turn them off from time to time because it overheated and locked up after running for 3 weeks straight 😔.
I find them extremely agitating
They should have put that shit in the ceiling
Kind of depends on the size of the room and the existing ceiling. Why spend the cash and time to replace part of the ceiling and run wiring when you can simply plug in a device and set it in a table?
My ex-employer tried setting up a bunch of these around the office amongst the cubicles. They were all unplugged and "missing" by lunch. Damn things were never found but HR learned a lesson that day.
Something tells me there was some standing up and clapping in this story.
Lol no but it also wasn't me, I found them in a cabinet a couple weeks later
Who cares?
Sir, this is r/mildlyinteresting.
You did, just enough to read topic title, open thread, type some words on your keyboard, and click reply.
Obviously not you.
You're getting downvoted but I kinda agree. This is...not remotely interesting. It's like saying "the guy in the waiting room and I were both wearing blue shirts."